View full sizeThe Alabama Republican Party on Friday, May 2, 2014, voted to invalidate the candidacy of Chris McNeil, left. Mobile County Republican Chairwoman Terry Lathan, right, said the party made the right decision.

“It was the right thing to do. … If you’re ineligible, you’re ineligible,” she said.

McNeil, who said he plans to challenge the party’s ruling in federal court, pointed on Friday to a provision in the state constitution that requires House candidates to live “in their respective districts or counties.” He said he would have had time to move to another house before taking office in order to satisfy a separate legal requirement.

But Lathan said that provision since has been amended and representatives must live in their districts.

Lathan said some in the party favored letting the June 3 primary election play out, leaving open the possibility of acting later if McNeil won. But she said it was better to resolve the dispute now.

The challenge was nothing personal, Lathan said. She said McNeil could have sought the party’s nomination in District 101, where his house sits and where he is registered to vote.

“He would have been welcomed with open arms,” she said. “The law trumps what we sometimes want to do.”

McNeil, who owns a pair of bonding companies and a tanning salon, lives on the south side of Howells Ferry Road in Semmes. The road serves as the boundary between districts 101 and 102.

McNeil on Friday criticized Lathan’s husband, Jerry Lathan, for failing to recuse himself from the vote to invalidate his candidacy. Terry Lathan said it would not have changed the outcome.